by Alison Lueders, Great Green Editing
Here’s the ninth post in our series about local companies that have achieved the City of Tampa’s Green Business Designation. This week we highlight eBridge, which provides document management solutions to businesses of all sizes. Their hosted document management system helps businesses eliminate the waste, risk and inefficiencies of paper-based records and processes.
eBridge has been in business since 2001 and received their designation in 2010. Just last month they also collected a 2013 Sustainable Business Award from Earth Charter US.
Sustainable Practices
- Helping other businesses go green. As a document management company, they help businesses go paperless with a more efficient way to store and retrieve files. Their offerings promote sustainable business practices in a number of industries. In addition, the solution is hosted (rather than based on a client’s servers), which reduces the resources required to operate a document management solution in their own office.
- Walking the talk. eBridge uses the document management system themselves, so there is very little paper used in their own business.
- Recycling a building.In 2009, they moved from a business suite to a new headquarters they purchased and had refurbished. The building was an abandoned warehouse from the 1960s. It was completely gutted and redone using sustainable materials, natural light, and efficient landscaping. The goal was twofold: to contribute to the local community by “recycling” an unused building in their business district and to create a healthy and productive work environment for employees.
- Sustainability begins at the office. eBridge’s sustainable practices include recycling; landscaping using native, non-invasive plants that require little water; and providing a kitchen stocked with traditional, reusable items like employee coffee mugs, real dishes and silverware, and Tervis tumblers rather than disposable food and beverage service items.
Business Results
- Cost savings. By reducing their use of paper, they save on office expenses such as printers, toner, copiers, etc. It also reduces file storage needs, as everything is stored “in the cloud.”
- Better customer service. Using electronic documents also allows them to be more efficient and responsive to customers’ needs by reducing the time it takes to retrieve client documents.
- More customers. By tapping into the “green movement”, they are able to attract more customers by offering a product that meets their needs and the current business climate.
Looking Ahead
- eBridge plans to add even more features and functionality to their hosted document management system to better meet customers’ needs and appeal to a wider audience of clients.
For more information about the Green Business Designation Program, contact Janet Harrison at 813-470-5055.